Zoku Owarimonogatari

I've seen enough anime with great setup and no payoff by now to not get my hopes up, but I'm still sorry to say that my biggest initial response to Zoku Owarimonogatari is disappointment, the gradual revelation that there was nothing behind the curtain. I suppose the theme that youth is full of disappointments and loose ends that will never truly be resolved isn't totally uninteresting, but that point was already made more succinctly and elegantly in Nisemonogatari.

As always, I find myself tempted to give Nisio more credit than he probably deserves by positing that the fact that there's nothing behind the curtain is ... part of the point, but...why spend three hours on it, then? Just to troll the audience? (And why bother finally introducing one of the most important and consequential characters in the series for...basically no reason?) If this were actually the end of the series it would be extremely unfulfilling, but given that Nisio did apparently have the post-high school arcs planned all along maybe there's still something there in Off Season and Monster Season? I guess we'll find out in 2030 or so.

I liked seeing Koyomi terrified and embarrassed by Mayoi and the spoiler character, because it's actually not a side of him we've really seen before. The Tsukihi face-washing scene feels like a de-sexualized, humiliating inversion of Nisemonogatari's famous toothbrush scene and is actually pretty disturbing, but...like so much else here, it doesn't seem to have really had a point.

Also I know Nisio loves giving Hitagi no screentime but couldn't we at least get some more Hanekawa??? Please?

Zoku Owarimonogatari is the unnecessary yet enjoyable enough epilogue to the Monogatari series. The story concerns Koyomi entering a strange mirror world where all of his friends are 'reversed'. Or that's how it appears at first anyway, but there might be a little more to it. Personally I thought that the ending of Owarimonogatari Second Season was the perfect way to end the series, but Zoku kept my interest until the end either way. At the very least it did not go and ruin anything.

But like I said, this epilogue feels largely pointless. Many of the revelations that Koyomi has in the mirror world are ... things that could have easily been already inferred just based on the previous seasons. This feels like an author trying to over-explain their own work rather than letting the reader interpret it on their own.

Zoku also lacks the emotional impact of Owarimonogatari or even the seasons preceding that. The part in Owarimonogatari when Koyomi re-stated his desire to share his fate, whether it's to live or to die, with Shinobu made me tear up and would have been such a perfect way to wrap up the story as it ties back nicely to Kizumonogatari where it all began chronologically. Nothing in Zoku comes even close to something as moving as that scene, which is a shame. I was ready for another story to play on my heartstrings, but all I got was a somewhat entertaining arc that did not really strike me as all that dramatic.

If you're a fan of the Monogatari series you will probably be entertained by this epilogue. It will most likely not make you cry, but you likely won't be bored or terribly disappointed either. The gags, visuals and fanservice are still there. Also, the ending theme is fantastic. Zoku Owarimonogatari is a decent enough conclusion to a great series.

Edit: Upon further reflection, I decided to drop my rating from 7 to 6, because Zoku left me wanting more than what it delivered. I have not yet read the original light novel for this particular entry, so I'm not sure whether these complaints apply to the source material. I will detail my story gripes below with minor spoilers:

[SPOILER WARNING]

- Not seeing Princess Shinobu was such a tease. If they had initially hid her behind the veil, then shown her later on, the payoff would have been much more satisfying after all the build-up. Shinobu is the most important character in the entire series, so reducing her to a voice behind a curtain is a letdown to say the least.
- Both Black Hanekawa and Loli Hanekawa are under-utilized. Even if they were not central to the main story it would have been appropriate to give them more screentime. For example, it would have been amusing to see Koyomi's reaction to drunk Loli Hanekawa.
- The whole plot point of Koyomi trying to enter Kanbaru's bath to get in touch with the Shinobu of his world was pointless. This would have been a good way to tie to the Koyomi Water episode from Koyomimonogatari, but since this plan turned out to not work, that makes the Koyomi Water episode completely pointless.
- Grown-up Hachikuji was cute, but I would have liked to see Koyomi interact with the Hachikuji of his own world after he comes back from the mirror world (kind of like the ending of Kabukimonogatari). The same applies to all the other 'reversed' characters. The whole point of the mirror world was to present a different reality and contrast it with the actual reality, but we never see Koyomi interact with the 'real' versions of his friends in this story arc. Isn't the point of presenting us with a different reality that when he sees his old friends again, he feels like he's back home? Wouldn't it be more satisfying if he shared his experiences with the people whose alternate versions he actually met in that parallel world? Instead, all we get is a pretty lame epilogue with Hitagi, who wasn't even relevant to this particular story arc as she was not present in the mirror world. If the epilogue had involved all the relevant characters reflecting on Koyomi's adventure with him, this ending would have been much more memorable.